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“Liddy, grab my wallet and the keys to the truck. They’re on the counter near the coffee pot. Truly, you get Boo’s diaper bag. In the side pocket, there’s a laminated card with all his medical information in it. We have to get him to the hospital now. The ambulance will take too long.”
We all ran to the front door. But then …wham… we came to a horror-filled full stop as we looked at the blocked driveway. The sound of Boo’s wheezing filled the air, Melody hesitated for just a second before she ran towards the car, opened the door, and began to strap Boo into the car seat. “Liddy, give Truly the keys. Truly you start the car. Liddy, you tell those sons of bitches they have until I strap my baby into his car seat to move those goddamn bikes out of our way, or we’re going through them. Hurry!”
I jumped over the hedge way and raced across the lawn to Crix’s house. Without thinking twice, I pushed the door wide open, only to be met with lots of loud music, rooms full of people, and two prospects suddenly standing in front of me.
“You have to move the bikes!” I yelled out.
“What?” One of them shouted above the music.
“Move the bikes!” I shouted back. “We have an emergency! The bikes are all over the driveway!”
Fool number one planted himself right in front of me and said, “Silver Sinners don’t take orders. We give ‘em. Nobody’s moving anything.” Then he slammed the door in my face. I went to open the door again only to find it locked against me.
I ran back over to the truck and opened the driver’s side door. “I’m driving, Truly.” And Truly being the smart girl that she was, didn’t even question me or hesitate. She hauled ass into the passenger seat while Melody sat next to a strapped-in Boo in the back.
“Are they coming out?” Truly shouted.
“No.”
“NO?” Truly screamed out horrified.
“I’m going through.” My blood began to boil with rage and my jaw set tight.
I revved the engine hard before I shoved the gear into drive. The car lurched about five feet forward before I rammed the lever into reverse. I repeated that forward and reverse motion several times. Although with every evolution we were rewarded with a satisfying crunch sound, we were only able to move a few feet back at a time. Turns out that running over a line of Harleys is not easy, even with a big ass SUV like Melody’s. I ended up locking one of the bikes under my bumper and dragging it across the lawn and into the street. I shoved the car into reverse one more time before I was able to dislodge the bike.
As I sped down the road I glanced briefly into my rearview and saw a bunch of Sinners out on the front lawn. Their expressions of confused outrage made me wonder just how high the music volume had been that they did not hear the crashing of vehicles or the spinning of wheels when we were trying to get through the damn driveway.
Or maybe they did hear all that racket but were they just too arrogant to believe those sounds could have anything to do with them. But I didn’t give them another thought as I weaved in and out of the cars on the highway and blew through several stoplights and traffic signs on my way to the Johnson-Meyer Pediatric Center. Boo was sounding worse by the minute, Melody was quietly going hysterical…her face was pale and her bottom lip was bloodied where she had bitten down on it. Truly’s body was bent at the waist with her nose pointing straight at the windshield. She was yelling out directions to me…weave…sharp left… pass on the right…faster!!!
I hit a soft shoulder and the vehicle careened to the left, then to the right, and then slid sideways before I regained enough control to pull into the emergency room parking lot. I threw the car into park and turned off the motor. I heard a roar come up behind me and I wasn’t surprised to see a half dozen Sinners pull in behind us. The next thing I knew the doors in the truck were pulled open and Truly and I were dragged out.
“What the fuck?! Liddy?” Deke grabbed on to me. “What the hell is going on?”
Before I could answer, Melody let out scream that can only be described as bloody murder. “I CAN’T GET HIM OUT!!!!”
We all turned around to find Boo turning blue in his car seat while Melody struggled with the safety belt. Crix grabbed Melody by the seat of her pants and tossed her aside, then he pushed the button on a nine-inch switchblade and with one determined slash he cut through the belt, pulled out the baby, and without even a glance at Melody ran Boo inside. Melody was hot on his heels, and it was only seconds before the automatic door opened and closed behind them.
Liddy
The ticking of the clock grew louder and louder as precious minutes passed. Truly and I paced the waiting room of the Pediatric ICU, drinking burnt coffee while sitting on hard plastic chairs. The room was painted a dull mint green, and the floor was industrial spotted linoleum. Although there was a toy box, a television, and a fold-up table complete with a partially made thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle on it, really the family waiting room was no place for a family to wait. It was cheerless, unwelcoming, and offered absolutely no comfort. I thought that maybe when this was over, I could come back and offer my services as an artist and cheer the whole place right up. To occupy my time, I started sketching on the napkins that were left near the burnt coffee. Truly was playing word games on her phone.
“Ouch!” A hard jab to my rib cage took me out of my head. I turned to Truly who nodded toward the doorway.
“Padua.” Truly and I shot up and hurried to the PICU nurse, Padua Nguan. Aunt Betty had done Padua’s hair for years. I hadn’t seen her since I’d been back in town, but she looked pretty much the same as she did then. Almond-shaped eyes, smooth skin the color of dark chocolate, and lots of thick, dark hair, except now there were a few threads of silver running through it, and a few more lines on her face. Padua sported a pair of Looney Tune’s scrubs, and pink clogs. The happy outfit belied the concerned and somber look on her face. She reached out and squeezed both of our hands. “Let’s sit down for a moment.”
I had been through a whole lot of things in my life and some of them bone-numbing scary. But nothing terrified me more than those words and the look on Padua’s face when she said them. I naturally turned to Truly then, and when she visibly straightened her spine, I straightened mine too.
“Melody knew you’d be worried sick so she asked me to come out and fill you in. From what we can tell Boo got stung by a bee while he was napping. The venom caused a severe allergic reaction in his little system. As a result of that bug bite Boo is suffering from anaphylaxis.
“Ana…what?”
“Anaphylaxis. It’s a severe allergic reaction,” she explained.
“How severe?”
Padua looked at us both and sighed quietly. Then she took the stethoscope off and paused as if finding the right words to say.
“Padua…” I struggled to keep my hands on my lap because one more second of waiting, and I was going to wring the hesitation right out of her. “Out with it.”
